Dallas Evans , who passed away recently, was a star end on the 1953 San Diego High football  team, a sub 49-second quarter-miler at San Diego State, and a coach and teacher more  than 30 years in the South Bay area.

Dallas earned all-City Prep League honors on the 7-3 San Diego team that won the CPL championship.  Evans scored six touchdowns, tied for third on the team in scoring  to Horace Tucker’s 40, Ermon Johnson’s 38, and with Floyd Robinson’s 36.

The Hillers lost to Anaheim, 21-7, in the 1953 Southern Section playoffs.

The jovial Evans was head track coach at St. Augustine High in 1962, when the Saints featured James Moore, one of the San Diego Section’s top 440 runners, with a best time of :49.5.

Dallas coached many years with Ed Teagle at Mar Vista, which dominated Metropolitan League dual meet teams.

Brother Steve Evans, was a star on the Hoover basketball and baseball teams from 1955-57.

Lincoln and Cathedral, traditional big shots in the Western League and San Diego Section, appear to be trying to outdo each other.

The Hornets of coach David Dunn, 24-2 over the last two seasons, are signed to play road games at Long Beach Poly, Sacramento Grant, and Coronado High of Henderson, Nevada, plus home games against San Juan Capistrano JSerra, Los Alamitos, and Las Vegas Arbor View.

It is a powerful nonleague gauntlet Lincoln will try to get through before the Hornets take on Western League rivals Cathedral, Madison, St. Augustine, and Point Loma, which is moving over from the Eastern League.

Cathedral, 12-2 and a state 1-AA Division champion in 2021, is coming off 6-6 and 4-8 seasons in 2022 and ’23.  The Dons, 227-102-0 (.690) since 1996 under head coach Sean Doyle, have scheduled nonleague encounters with San Diego Section thoroughbreds Granite Hills, Helix, and Mater Dei.

Cathedral also booked intersectional challenges with L.A. Mission Hills Chaminade, San Francisco St. Ignatius (alma mater of San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts), and Phoenix Mountain Pointe, and then jumps into the Western League.

Lincoln and Cathedral, plus about 95 percent of the 96 other football-playing schools’ schedules,  can be found here.  Additions, corrections, or deletions will be noted as the teams prepare for Week 1 Aug. 23.

Webmaster Henrik Jonson also is accumulating Flag Football schedules.

The last of John Maffei’s The San Diego Union weekly poll voting was at conclusion of the San Diego Section playoffs. Cal-Hi Sports and Cal Preps.com rankings included all games in the  CIF state postseason.  Max Preps’ entries were inclusive of San Diego Section playoffs.

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Mount Miguel (12-2, 32 points), La Jolla Country Day (11-3, 23), Torrey Pines (7-4, 17), Mater Dei (6-4, 6), La Costa Canyon (5-6, 3), La Jolla (103, 3), Cathedral (4-8, 2), Sweetwater (8-7, 1).

VOTING PANEL

Twenty-nine sportswriters, sportscasters, administrators from San Diego County, plus Max Preps.com.

• John Maffei (San Diego Union-Tribune).
• Don Norcross, Steve Brand, Rick Hoff, Eric Williams, Thomas Gutierrez , Freelance contributors.
• Brandon Stone, Allison Edmonds, John Carroll (KUSI, Channel 51).
• Rick Smith (partletonsports.com).
• Adam Paul (EastCountySports.com).
• Bodie DeSilva (ScorebookLive.com). 
• John Kentera, Braden Suprenant (97.3-FM The Fan).
• Steve (Biff) Dolan (Mountain Country 107.9-FM). 
• Christian Pedersen (San Diego Sports Association).
• Troy Hirsch, Nic Pollino (Fox 5 San Diego). 
• Joe Heinz, Todd Cassen, Ron Marquez (CIF San Diego Section).
• Mike Dolan, Rex Johnson, Bruce Ward (CIF Advisory Committee).
• Joe Evangelist (San Diego Coaching Legends Committee).
• Will Torrez (Valley Sports Network).
• Tom Ronco  (Imperial Valley Press).
• Raymond Brown  (SDfootball.net).
• Tom Helmantoler (Southern Conference Advisor).
• Max Preps.

SirDarius Autry, a 160-pound junior running back, wide receiver, and cornerback, became the 37th player in County history to score at least 200 points in a season.

“Sir” Autry also became the third running back to finish first in the County in the Hoover Cardinals’ 94-season history, according to available statistics from newspapers and Max Preps research.

Autry matched the total of Terry Rodgers of Sweetwater, the first to score 200, hitting that number in 1985.

Hoover’s Roy Engle and Oceanside’s Bobby Betoncini led County scorers with 57 points each in 1935 and the Cardinals’ Eddie Crain scored 25 points in the abbreviated, 1943 wartime campaign.

Autry bettered the reported school one-season record of 132 points by Deontray Johnson in 2008.   Bob Miller in 1947, Terrell Williams in 2000, and Damonte Holiday in 2013 each had 126.

SOME HIGH SCORERS, PRE-SAN DIEGO SECTION

(Game stats haven’t always been reported or published and individual records haven’t always been accurate .

*Includes field goal.

Lists of Top Annual Scorers and All-Time Individual Scorers.

The Coach 100 Club welcomed a new member in 2023 and the 200 club could add another in 2024.

Mater Dei coach John Joyner, who announced he was stepping down at conclusion of the season, became the 49^th to win at least 100 games, finishing the season with an all-time record of 104-69, .601 and state Division II-A championship in 2022.

Chris Hauser ended his 15^th season at Mission Hills with a record of 198-86-2, .686, stands 11^th all-time, and could continue to travel with the elite.

BENNIE IN SIGHT

Among 200-game winners, Cathedral’s Sean Doyle could make the biggest jump in 2024.

Win eight games and Doyle (231-110-0, .677) could move past Bennie Edens (238) into fourth place.

Ron Hamamoto (236-188-4, .556), who coached Doyle at earlier-named University and was succeeded by Doyle at Uni in 1996, is also likely to move past Edens.

Others who gained in 2023:

Ramona’s Damon Baldwin is 32^nd with 128 victories, up from 34^th.  Nine wins in 2024 would leapfrog Baldwin over seven others into a tie at 137 with Steve Sutton.

Point Loma’s Joel Allen succeeded Baldwin at No. 35 with 122 victories before announcing his retirement at the end of the season.

El Capitan’s Ron Burner is 40^th with 111 wins after starting the season in a tie for 43^th with Morse’s Tracy McNair, whose four victories in ’22 moved McNair to 44^th.

100 AWAITING OTHERS

At least four coaches, Tony Corley of San Pasqual; Thadd MacNeal of Carlsbad; David Dunn of Lincoln, and Kellan Cobbs of Granite Hills are within six victories of the Century mark.

Corley has 97 wins, MacNeal 96, Dunn 94, and Cobbs 93.  La Costa Canyon’s Sean Sovacool is next with 89.

The full Coach 100 Club list is here.

After five defeats in the Southern California regionals, including a couple jaw-droppers, Del Norte, 30-28 to Lake Balboa Birmingham, and St. Augustine, 21-20 to Ventura St. Bonaventure, the San Diego Section is down to one team.

Would you believe 8-6 Sweetwater?

The same Red Devils, 0-4 at the start of the season and 8-43 from 2015-20, who won their fifth game in a row, the last four in the charged atmosphere of the playoffs, including the regional, 47-27, versus visiting Santa Monica St. Monica (11-4).

The Red Devils of coach Ervin Hernandez, will play 13-0 Colusa of the Northern Section Saturday at 11 a.m. at El Camino College in Torrance for the state VI-A title.

Sweetwater, despite some lean years after the millennium, has a long and honored history, notably the wildly successful 1960’s-‘80’s eras of coaches Dave Lay, Gene Alim, and Al Jacobus.

The latest success represented the Red Devils’ first in an intersectional game in the postseason since a Cinderella run in the 1958 Southern Section playoffs, in which they reached the semifinal round before losing, 34-20, to Santa Monica after tying Anaheim, 7-7, and beating Santa Maria, 27-7.

Dave Lay was 76-27 (.739) from 1967-77, not counting a Dreaded Administrative Glitch which cost his 1968 team eight forfeit losses and a no-contest.  Gene Alim was 74-9 (.892) from 1981-87, and Al Jacobus 23-7 (.767) from 1978-80. The trio overall was 173-39 (.816), not counting forfeits. Alim also coached again at Sweetwater from 1991-94.

WHA’ HAPPENED?

Del Norte (11-3) and St. Augustine (10-5) are asking that question.

Visiting Birmingham, from the Los Angeles City Section, trailed in the III-AA contest, 28-24, and appeared dead in the water until quarterback Kingston Tisdale launched a Hail Mary pass from his 48-yard line on the game’s final play.

Peyton Jackson, Tisdale’s intended receiver, did not make the catch at the 12-yard line but deflected the ball.  Teammate Devyn Jackson was in position at the 17-yard line, made the reception and ran untouched for the winning score.

“I just can’t believe we’re going to go out on a play like that,” Nighthawks wide receiver Ty Olsen, who had put his team ahead on a 75-yard kickoff return with 9:52 remaining, told Don Norcross of The San Diego Union.

Said Nighthawks quarterback Jack Schneider: “I don’t know what to believe.  Disbelief.”

LAST SECOND AGAIN

St. Augustine led visiting St. Bonaventure of the Southern Section, 20-14, until a halfback, four-yard touchdown pass on the game’s final play in the D-I contest.

Not as dramatic as Del Norte’s loss, but equally stunning.  St. Augustine had given up the ball on its 30-yard line with eight seconds to play.

A pass completion put the ball on the Saints’ four-yard line with four seconds to play, followed by a quarterback ball spike that left two seconds on the clock.

Two too many.

NOT AS CLOSE

Granite Hills led the I-AA playoff at Mission Viejo, 14-0, and then was buried under a 49-0 Diablos onslaught to finish the 12-1 season with a 49-21 loss.

Mount Miguel was ushered out in DIII-A, 52-21, by Lakewood Mayfair at Bellflower High and La Jolla Country Day was ousted, 41-21, in DV-A at Wilmington Banning.

TRUE GRID

Sweetwater will be making it 70^th playoff appearance, dating to a 13-6 playoff loss to San Diego High in 1922…the Red Devils were 2-6-1 in Southern Section postseason games, are 33-28-1 in the postseason since joining the nascent San Diego Section in 1960, and 35-34-1 overall…the Colusa Red Hawks are 13-0, having won the Northern California regional, 42-6 over South San Francisco after Northern Section wins of 14-7 over East Nicolaus and 42-13 over Winters…Colusa High opened in 1916, about 65 miles North of Sacramento…until 2010 the school mascot was the Colus plant, a flowering grass endemic to the area…the Red Hawks have a 10.4 Cal-Preps.com rating to Sweetwater’s -4.4…Colusa is ranked 256th in California and Sweetwater 448th by Max Preps … the computer is calling a 38-22 victory for the Red Hawks….